TIMBER COMPANY LIKE SAMLING AND SHEN YANG GIVE OUT SALT TO PENANS FIRE VICTIMSMIRI: The 600 Punans who were made homeless when a fire razed their longhouse in Ulu Tatau, central Sarawak, said they felt hurt, insulted and humiliated when a timber giant gave them aid in the form of packets of salt.
The hungry and tired victims from Rumah Ado, located five hours by timber road from Bintulu, had been appealing for help from the Government and some timber companies operating in the Tatau district after the fire on Thursday.
Yesterday, the manager of a private logging consortium, which has its headquarters in Sarawak but with several overseas projects, handed the fire victims two packets of salt each.
Punan leader Penghulu Sanok Magai received the salt at the fire site in front of hundreds of victims.
Meagre help: Magai showing the packets of salt given as relief aid for fire victims by a timber company in Miri yesterday.
Magai was shocked but kept his cool and even managed a smile as he politely accepted the bags of salt.
However, the Punan National Association is fuming mad and its publicity chief Calvin Jemarang described the act as cruel and heartless.
“Why must this timber company insult the fire victims like this? If it is reluctant to give any aid, then do not give anything,” he said.
The hungry and tired victims from Rumah Ado, located five hours by timber road from Bintulu, had been appealing for help from the Government and some timber companies operating in the Tatau district after the fire on Thursday.
Yesterday, the manager of a private logging consortium, which has its headquarters in Sarawak but with several overseas projects, handed the fire victims two packets of salt each.
Punan leader Penghulu Sanok Magai received the salt at the fire site in front of hundreds of victims.
Meagre help: Magai showing the packets of salt given as relief aid for fire victims by a timber company in Miri yesterday.
Magai was shocked but kept his cool and even managed a smile as he politely accepted the bags of salt.
However, the Punan National Association is fuming mad and its publicity chief Calvin Jemarang described the act as cruel and heartless.
“Why must this timber company insult the fire victims like this? If it is reluctant to give any aid, then do not give anything,” he said.
“These victims are homeless, have little food and drink and their future is uncertain, and yet this timber company humiliated them like this.”
Relief aid has been slow in arriving. The Bintulu Welfare Department has been sending rice, clothing and noodles in limited amounts because of logistic problems.
Jemarang appealed to politicians and private firms to give more aid.
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Excerpt from The Star today:
In the meantime, two other timber giants – Samling Corporation and Grand Perfect – have ferried construction materials and rice to help the fire victims, while the Red Crescent and the Lions Club in Bintulu have chipped in with material aid, food and medicine.
The Star
Salt is all they give after ‘milking’ land
By STEPHEN THEN
MIRI: The timber giant that rubbed salt into the wounds of the 600-plus Rumah Ado fire victims in Ulu Tatau in central Sarawak has logging concessions and oil palm projects in the state encompassing nearly 100,000ha – about 1.5 times the size of Singapore island.
This private consortium is involved in projects such as timber extraction, construction, agriculture plantations, engineering and heavy industries.
Two days ago, a manager of this consortium gave two packets of salt to each of the Punan natives of Rumah Ado, who lost their homes during a fire last Thursday after the residents appealed to the timber giant for relief.
The Punan National Association labelled this gesture as inhumane, with association publicity chief Calvin Jemarang condemning the act as insulting and humiliating to the fire victims.
Yesterday, The Star received a call from a church worker in Belaga district near Bakun, complaining that this same company had refused to give a single sen to some 300 fire victims from his longhouse that was gutted a few years ago.
“They have a logging camp not far from our longhouse. The management refused to help. Some labourers at the camp gave us rice and clothing out of pity, but the management simply refused to give anything,” said the church worker.
Sources from a government department in Bintulu yesterday disclosed that this company had secured almost 100,000ha of land development projects.
In the meantime, two other timber giants – Samling Corporation and Grand Perfect – have ferried construction materials and rice to help the fire victims, while the Red Crescent and the Lions Club in Bintulu have chipped in with material aid, food and medicine.
In this blog, we mentioned company like Samling and Shen Yang because they are well known to be cronies of Taik Mahmmod the king corrupter in Sarawak!
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